Theodore H. Poister, PhD

Professor of Public Management and Policy, Georgia State University

Theodore H. Poister, PhD, is professor of Public Management and Policy in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University, where he specializes in public management and applied research methods. He has previously served on the faculties of Southern University and Penn State University and was also a visiting professor at George Washington University. He has a long-term commitment to the use of applied research methods and statistics to evaluate the performance of public programs, and he teaches a highly regarded two course sequence in this area at Georgia State in which he strives to make applied statistics understandable and useable for master’s students in public administration and policy.

Poister is the author of early books in the field including Public Program Analysis: Applied Research Methods (University Park Press, 1978), Applied Program Evaluation in Local Government (Lexington Books, 1979), and Performance Monitoring (Lexington Books, 1983), and the 2nd edition of his co-authored volume on Managing and Measuring Performance in Public and Nonprofit Organizations: An Integrated Approach was published in 2015 by Jossey-Bass. Much of his research is concerned with results oriented approaches and the use of such tools as strategic planning, performance management, quality improvement, and stakeholder engagement methods in government. He has published widely on these topics in such journals as Public Administration Review, American Review of Public Administration, Public Productivity & Management Review, Journal of Public Administration Research & Theory, Journal of Urban Affairs, and Administration & Society.

Theodore Poister has a long-standing interest in transportation policy and management, but he has also worked in a variety of other program areas including housing, criminal justice, mental disabilities, income maintenance, child support enforcement, public health, and nursing regulation. Beyond classroom teaching and academic research, he enjoys working in the field with practicing public and nonprofit managers, and over the years has conducted applied research projects, program evaluations, statistical analyses, strategic planning efforts, and performance measurement system development projects–as well as professional training and development programs–for a wide variety of federal, state, local, and nonprofit agencies.

Organizations he has worked with include the Georgia Department of Administrative Services, the Georgia Office of Child Support Enforcement, the Georgia Department of Community Health, the North Dakota State Auditor’s Office, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, the Health Resources and Services Administration, Human Resources & Skills Development Canada, and the National Consortium of State Boards of Nursing as well as the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, the Georgia Department of Transportation, the Transportation Research Board, the Korean Transportation Institute, the U.S. Maritime Administration, Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, and River Valley Transit (Williamsport, Pennsylvania) among others. Poister served as a Peace Corps volunteer, working as a city planner in Chile, and he has a nascent interest in international development.